Rounded dice

ABSTRACT

The proposed is a rounded dice with multiple faces. Proposed dice provide a better rolling experience to the user/player participating in the game of dice. According to an embodiment of the proposed invention, the rounded dice comprises a hollow dice body configured to have a plurality of faces, each face is provided with an identifier for play purposes like in role-playing games or DND dice games; a plurality of pins extending outward from the dice body and facilitating the dice to stop rolling excessively; and a plurality of links, each link connects two pins of the plurality of pins.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application hereby claims priority to and incorporates by reference the entirety of the disclosures of the provisional application No. 63/440,927 entitled “Novel Rounded Dice” filed on 25 Jan. 2023.

TECHNICAL FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention relates to the field of polyhedral dice. More particularly, the present invention relates to rounded dice with a plurality of faces. The proposed rounded dice are usable in role-playing games or DND dice games, such as tabletop games.

BACKGROUND

A dice is typically a small, throwable object that has multiple faces (most commonly six) and possible positions that indicate a number (or something else), used for generating random numbers and events. They are typically used for tabletop games, which include a wide variety of games, as well as for gambling. Examples of tabletop games that involve the use of dice include but are not limited to games like backgammon, Boggle, Yahtzee, Monopoly, Risk, Dungeons and Dragons, and Settlers of Catan, where dice are a central component of the game.

The most commonly used dice shapes are Tetrahedron (with 4 faces), Cube (with 6 faces), Octahedron (with 8 faces), Pentagonal trapezohedron (with 10 faces), Dodecahedron (with 12 faces), and Icosahedron (with 20 faces).

Although the traditional dices with 4 to 20 faces are able to roll, however, fail to provide a better roll experience to a user/player. These conventional dice usually roll further than required, and sometimes they hardly roll and land with a clunk. Some of these conventional dice have polyhedral sharp edges which might be difficult to hold on the hand for the player. Further, in some of the conventional rounded dice, the dice keep rolling and it is difficult to stop during the roll/motion and thus consumes more time for the stoppage.

In the light of the aforementioned limitations associated with the conventional dice with 4 faces, 6 faces, 8 faces, 10 faces, 12 faces, 20 faces, the inventor herein proposes a novel rounded and hollow metallic dice that may be formed with 4 faces, 6 faces, 8 faces, 10 faces, 12 faces and 20 faces, but are round, hollow and metal. The proposed dice includes pins that help or facilitate the dice not to roll far and thus stop a bit better compared to conventional rounded dice.

SUMMARY

The proposed invention provides rounded dice with a plurality of faces that are a unique concept and aesthetically pleasing for tabletop gamers.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a rounded dice with a plurality of faces that are usable in role-playing games or DND dice games, such as tabletop games.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a rounded dice with a plurality of faces that give players a more comfortable feel during holding the dice in their hands.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a rounded dice with a plurality of faces that help the dice not to roll too far and stop a bit better compared to a totally round sphere without pins.

It is an object of the present invention to provide rounded dice with a plurality of faces that is made of metal and hollow and thus lightweight.

According to an embodiment of the proposed invention, the rounded dice comprises a hollow dice body configured to have a plurality of faces, each face is provided with an identifier for play purposes like in role-playing games or DND dice games; a plurality of pins extending outward from the dice body and facilitating the dice to stop rolling excessively; and a plurality of links, each link connects two pins of the plurality of pins.

The plurality of faces is a polygon in shape formed by the plurality of links. The top-faced identifier defines the position of the dice. The faces may be 4 faces, 6 faces, 8 faces, 10 faces, 12 faces, and 20 faces. Proposed dice provide a better rolling experience to the user/player participating in the game of dice.

The plurality of pins is rounded/spherical or semi-spherically shaped. The rounded pins are not sharp and thus give players a more comfortable feel during holding the dice in their hands. The pins on the points of the dice faces help the dice not to roll too far and stop a bit better compared to a totally round sphere without pins.

In another aspect of the present invention, the pins are configured in the form of jewels.

The proposed dice are made using a lost-wax casting process using a variety of metals such as but not limited to gold, silver, brass, or bronze.

Various objects, features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the embodiments of the invention, along with the accompanying drawings in which like numerals represent components.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

So that the manner in which the above-recited features of the present invention can be understood in detail, a more particular description of the invention, briefly summarized above, may have been referred to by embodiments, some of which are illustrated in the appended drawings. It is to be noted, however, that the appended drawings illustrate only typical embodiments of this invention and are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope, for the invention may admit to other equally effective embodiments. These and other features, benefits, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent by reference to the following text figure, with like reference numbers referring to like structures across the views, wherein:

FIGS. 1A-1B illustrates perspective views of a rounded dice with four faces, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 2A-2B illustrates perspective views of a rounded dice with six faces, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 3A-3B illustrates perspective views of a rounded dice with eight faces, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 4A-4B illustrates perspective views of a rounded dice with ten faces, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 5A-5B illustrates perspective views of a rounded dice with twelve faces, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 6A-6B illustrates perspective views of a rounded dice with twenty faces, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 7A-7B illustrates perspective views of a rounded dice wherein the pins are configured in the form of jewels, according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 illustrates a sectional view of the rounded dice of FIG. 4B along A-A′, according to another embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Some embodiments, illustrating its features, will now be discussed in detail. The words “comprising,” “having,” “containing,” and “including,” and other forms thereof, are intended to be equivalent in meaning and be open-ended in that an item or items following any one of these words is not meant to be an exhaustive listing of such item or items, or meant to be limited to only the listed item or items. It must also be noted that as used herein and in the appended claims, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” include plural references unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Although any methods and systems similar or equivalent to those described herein can be used in the practice or testing of embodiments, the preferred methods, and systems are now described. The disclosed embodiments are merely exemplary.

The present invention is described hereinafter by various embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawing, wherein reference numerals used in the accompanying drawing correspond to the like elements throughout the description. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiment set forth herein. Rather, the embodiment is provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. In the following detailed description, numeric values and ranges are provided for various aspects of the implementations described. These values and ranges are to be treated as examples only and are not intended to limit the scope of the claims. In addition, several materials are identified as suitable for various facets of the implementations. These materials are to be treated as exemplary and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.

The proposed invention provides rounded dice with a plurality of faces that are a unique concept and aesthetically pleasing for tabletop gamers. The dice are usable in role-playing games or DND dice games, such as tabletop games. The dice give players a more comfortable feel during holding the dice in their hands. The dice are made of metal and hollow and thus lightweight.

From herein afterward, the dice is referred to as a dice 100.

The various features and embodiments of rounded dice 100 and the associated method of manufacturing the same are better explained in conjunction with FIGS. 1A-1B to FIG. 8 .

The dice 100 includes a dice body 105, a plurality of pins 102 b, and a plurality of links 102 a. The dice 100 is made using a casting method that uses a circular mold. More specifically, the casting method includes the lost-wax casting method.

Referring to the accompanying figures, particularly FIGS. 1A-1B to FIGS. 7A-7B, the rounded dice 100 of the present invention is made hollow from the inside, thus comprising an unfilled space ‘S’ (FIG. 8 ). The dice body 105 is made from metal, metal alloy or any other suitable materials. The dice body 105 is configured to have a plurality of faces 101 a-101 d as shown particularly in FIG. 1A. Each of the faces 101 a, 101 b, 102 c, 101 d is provided with an identifier 104 for play purposes like in any conventional dice. The identifier 104 includes an alphabet, a number, an alpha-numeric sign, a zodiac symbol, etc. The faces may be 4 faces, 6 faces, 8 faces, 10 faces, 12 faces, and 20 faces. FIGS. 1A-1B particularly shows the proposed dice 100 with 4 faces 101 a-101 d as shown numbered in FIG. 1A. Likewise, FIGS. 2A-2B particularly shows dice 100 with 6 faces, FIGS. 3A-3B particularly shows dice 100 with 8 faces, FIGS. 4A-4B particularly shows dice 100 with 10 faces, FIGS. 5A-5B particularly shows dice 100 with 12 faces, and FIGS. 6A-6B particularly shows dice 100 with 20 faces.

Proposed dice 100 provides a better rolling experience to the user/player participating in the game of dice 100. The faces 101 a-101 d (in the case of dice with 4 faces) are provided with a unique design element 107. The design element 107 comprises a dragon, a cartoon character, a sneak, or the like. For example, in the shown dice 100 in FIG. 1A the design element 107 is the dragon. It should be noted that the faces of the dice 100 are not numbered in FIGS. 2A-2B through FIGS. 7A-7B and 8 .

The plurality of pins 102 b as seen in the accompanying drawings extends out from the dice body 105. The pins 102 b help the dice 100 to stop rolling excessively. Each pin 102 b is connected to at least three links 102 a. In an exemplary non-limiting implementation of the present invention, the pin 102 b connects three, four, five, or six links 102 a together. The dice 100 of the present invention include a plurality of pins 102 b as can be seen in FIG. 1A uniformly distributed over the body of the dice 100. The pins 102 b are configured on the body of the dice 100 due to alike internal configuration formed within the mold using which the dice 100 is made during the manufacturing process. These pins 102 b help the dice 100 roll better and are safer due to being less sharp. Further, the pins 102 b on the dice 100 help the dice 100 to stop rolling excessively compared to round dice 100 that have no pins (aka conventional rounded dice) as discussed in the background section of this disclosure.

In the proposed design of the dice, 100 with 4 faces shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B the dice 100 include rounded faces with the pins 102 b. The pins 102 b may be circularly or semi-circularly shaped according to one embodiment. It should be understood that the pins 102 b may be oriented in many other shapes as well. In some other embodiments, these pins 102 b are configured to include jewel 106 as shown in FIGS. 7A and 7B. Each pin 102 b is configured to have a plurality of segments 103. A jewel 106 (E.g., gemstone) may be fixedly or removably held between the plurality of segments 103. In an embodiment, the jewel 106 may be permanently held between the segments 103 using glue or adhesive.

Each link 102 a connects the two pins 102 b of the plurality of pins 102 b. Each link 102 a has a mesh or chain-like pattern or may include any other pattern. The links 102 a may be formed in a variety of shapes and configurations. Any face 101 a, 101 b, 102 c, or 101 d of the plurality of faces is polygonal in shape formed by the plurality of links 102 a interconnecting pins 102 b. A top-faced identifier 104 defines the position of the dice 100. The top-faced identifier is an identifier provided on a top face or face against gravity when the dice 100 is at rest position or at a non-rotating position.

The dice 100 is usually made round in shape using an appropriate circular mold (not shown) created for use during the lost-wax casting method adapted for casting the proposed dice 100. The lost-wax casting method uses one or more of these steps:

Initially, a prototype model of the dice 100 is designed out of wax using casting equipment.

The prototype model of the dice 100 is then polished for producing a master pattern that is used to make a wax mold. The wax mold is made out of rubber. The wax mold is heated in order to make a flexible wax mold.

The rubber mold is filled with molten wax for making copies of the prototype model of the dice 100.

In the next step, a plurality of sprues is added to copies of the prototype model of the dice 100. A continuous structure is made that provides a path for molten wax to flow out.

The continuous structure is then dipped in a slurry of silica or surrounded by plaster. Once the plaster dries, the continuous structure is kept in a kiln in order to melt the wax. Once the wax started melting, a cavity is formed in form of a prototype model of the dice 100.

At the further step, the molten metal is poured into the cavity by means of vacuum pressure or gravity.

Once the molten metal is cooled, the mold is quenched in water.

At further step, the casted parts are cleaned up and all casting signs are removed. The sprues are cut off and recycled.

In the last step, the required dimensions of the dice 100 are achieved through machining, sandblasting, grounding, or filing.

Optionally, the dice 100 are heat-treated. The heat treatment enhances the mechanical properties of the material.

It should be understood according to the preceding description of the present invention that the same is susceptible to changes, modifications and adaptations, and that the said changes, modifications and adaptations fall within scope of the appended claims 

What is claimed is:
 1. A rounded dice (100), comprising: a hollow dice body (105) configured to have a plurality of faces (101 a, 101 b, 101 c, 101 d), each face (101 a, 101 b, 101 c, 101 d) is provided with an identifier (104) for play purposes like in role-playing games or DND dice games; a plurality of pins (102 b) extending outward from the dice body (105) and facilitating the dice (100) to stop rolling excessively; and a plurality of links (102 a), each link (102 a) connects two pins (102 b) of the plurality of pins (102 b); wherein, any face of the plurality of faces (101 a, 101 b, 101 c, 101 d) is a polygon in shape formed by the plurality of links (102 a); and wherein a top-faced identifier (104) defines a position of the dice (100).
 2. The rounded dice (100) of claim 1, wherein the dice body (105) is made from metal or metal alloy.
 3. The rounded dice (100) of claim 1, wherein the polygon shape comprises a triangle, quadrilateral, pentagon, hexagon, heptagon, octagon, decagon, or any possible combination thereof.
 4. The rounded dice (100) of claim 1, wherein the identifier (104) includes an alphabet, a number, an alpha-numeric sign, a zodiac symbol, etc.
 5. The rounded dice (100) of claim 1, wherein the plurality of faces (101 a, 101 b, 101 c, 101 d) includes four, six, eight, ten, twelve or twenty faces.
 6. The rounded dice (100) of claim 1, wherein each pin (102 b) of the plurality of pins (102 b) is connected to at least three links (102 a).
 7. The rounded dice (100) of claim 1, wherein each face of the plurality of faces (101 a, 101 b, 101 c, 101 d) is provided with a design element (107).
 8. The rounded dice (100) of claim 1, wherein each link of the plurality of links (102 a) has a mesh or chain-like pattern.
 9. The rounded dice (100) of claim 1, wherein each pin of the plurality of pins (102 b) is configured to have a plurality of segments (103).
 10. The rounded dice (100) of claim 9, wherein the plurality of segments (103) is configured to hold a jewel (106) therein.
 11. The rounded dice (100) of claim 1, wherein the plurality of pins (102 b) is circular or semi-circular in shape.
 12. The rounded dice (100) of claim 1, wherein the plurality of pins (102 b) is uniformly distributed over the dice body (105).
 13. The rounded dice (100) of claim 1, wherein the dice (100) is made using a casting method that uses a circular mold.
 14. The rounded dice (100) of claim 13, wherein the casting method is a lost-wax casting method. 